An estimated 9 percent of people in the United States suffer from kidney stones, and that number is reportedly on the rise. According to a recent study by researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, global warming associated with climate change might cause people who are already predisposed to get more kidney stones.
An estimated 9 percent of people in the United States suffer from kidney stones, and that number is reportedly on the rise.
According to a recent study by researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, global warming associated with climate change might cause people who are already predisposed to get more kidney stones.
Lead author of the study, Doctor Gregory Tasian, a pediatric urologist and epidemiologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is quoted as saying: "We found that as daily temperatures rise, there is a rapid increase in the probability of patients presenting over the next 20 days with kidney stones …With some experts predicting that extreme temperatures will become the norm in 30 years, children will bear the brunt of climate change."
For the study, researchers analyzed the medical records of over 60 thousand adults and children between 2005 and 2011 alongside weather records from five cities in the U.S.
One statistic shows that the instances of kidney stones has increased from one out of 20 people in 1994 to one in every eleven people.
This correlates with increasing temperatures, but the study shows that having more hot days rather than a higher average temperature might help predict the prevalence of kidney stones.